Natural Resources Management

Key Achievements

A major achievement over the past five years has been the significant change of attitude among target communities towards natural resources management associated with increased awareness of conservation and its importance to community livelihoods. Since inception of the natural resources program, 51,000 individuals have benefited from the program related activities.  Of these, 10,000 are direct beneficiaries, 8,000 who received cash through jobs/wages and cash dividends, while 41,000 individuals benefited indirectly by participating in the NRM process and either an enterprise being created, in which they became shareholders, or through capacity development of governance, administrative and financial structures of organizations to which they belonged. Through the program, communities and private landowners in various conservation sanctuaries have allocated 727,868 hectares of land across Kenya as wildlife habitat, buffer zones and water catchment areas.

The program has worked with a total of 68 separate initiatives including 30 community businesses, 15 conservation areas, 13 wildlife fora and 10 management plans.  Some 155 jobs were created during the year bringing to 636 jobs created to date. The cumulative financial benefits accrued by local communities from nature-based businesses initiatives has reached $524,000 to date Wildlife numbers in areas with community conservation programs have stabilized. The program provided organizational development (OD) support for CBOs to develop greater competency, impact and influence over key sectors of conservation and development.  The median organizational capacity index for groups that received OD support increased from 2.4 to 3.0 indicating that CBOs have moved from being nascent to emergent organizations.

At the Coast, implementation of Integrated Coast Management (ICM) practices at Jomo Kenyatta Public Beach (JKPB) contributed useful lessons for management of marine resources and marine policy dialogue.  The JKPB is seen a ‘model’ for ICM for integrated coastal area management (ICAM) whose lessons have been incorporated in 4 new sites.  The application of integrated water resource management tools at the ICAM model sites resulted in building of 25 rain water harvesting demonstration tanks. The USAID activity has leveraged private sector contributions for the ICM process with Bamburi Cement Factory providing more than US$10,000 toward construction of water tanks and establishment of JKPB ICAM site.  USAID supported the Government of Kenya (GoK) to improve forestry management and environmental governance.  The Forest Department received technical assistance from the US Forest Service to develop a forest fire management strategy and train 200 new forest guards on forestry management and governance.  USAID funded five senior officers to attend specialized training in forestry management to enhance the Department’s capacity to manage protected areas, including seeking partnership with local communities and private sector.